Beginning Matchers
 

My strongest suggestion for those just starting out.

1) Download Jim Bradshaw's "5 step approach" found here in this forum. Read and reread it several times. Then practice races using ONLY those guidelines for 60-90 days. Take NOTES.

2) Move to the "Mind's Eye" series of threads. There you will find Mr. Bradshaw's EXACT initial steps he had me do after familiarizing myself with the basics (5 step approach etc). Take your time and read the opening headers to the threads SEVERAL times please. It is THERE you will see EXACTLY what he had me do. Start with the first Mind's Eye thread. Spend at least a month working races in that fashion. Take NOTES.

Then drop me a line.

***** If you do NOT give yourself at LEAST 4-6 MONTHS of focused work on these fundamentals you have no chance of success. *****

This gives one the BEST chance to learn and RETAIN things that will help them matching. That is what Mr. Bradshaw wanted.

All the best
Richie

good Morning Richie....glad to see u back...

I have a question about what to label a horse like this..

Is it a e/p with the 1's, 2's, 3's in it PP or is it labeled an need to lead "E" and if there's another faster "E" , it is eliminated?

thxs mike

Styles : 1st call positions only

1) All his wins are wire-to-wire.

1a) can pass horses: can break from 2nd or 3rd before the quarter and
get the lead at the 1st call

1b) Comfort zone: needs at least 1/2 length lead at 1st call

1c) If challenged, not proven he can fight, at least, for the lead


2) Line 1 - won wire-to-wire

Line 3 - won wire-to-wire

Line 4 - fought for the lead at the 1st call , did'nt get it

3) When 2nd or 3rd at the 1st call, was not pressing, was fading and showed
no success at it, maybe except one race, and was fading at that one.

3a) When 2nd or 3rd at the 1st call, he is not passing horses, no power moves.

If he does not get the lead, he becomes Other-Than-Early, he does not win as a Other-Than-Early.

With his recent performance in last few lines, I would say he is Early, must go wire-to-wire.

Corrections humbly welcomed.


VoodooFan

*** Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now what is his 1st fraction when early Voodoo?? Complete your "picture" of this guy. Really good work. *** Richie

Hi Mike.

Hat only considered a horse to be an early/presser if he was 1/2 length or CLOSER than that to the lead at the FIRST call. He'd tell me "how the heck can a horse be called a presser Rich if he doesn't put his body on the other horse". HE wants pressers alongside the lead horse.I don't know if that helps you.

Styles vary widely depending on whom you ask. It's all good imo.

I'd go with the very first impression you had of the horse when you opened the race and saw him for the first time.

Hat's flying Appaloosa
 

Quick story from the Hat that might help regarding styles.

Most folks don't know that Jim owned,trained,raced and bet on horses that ran on what he called "Outlaw tracks".

No timer
No judges
No grandstand


Nothing but a dirt surface and some rough characters betting,scheming to take others cash man. I'm pretty sure Dick (Socantra) would know of some of these spots down there in Okie country! I think he also might have told Bill about this.

Hat told me about this Appaloosa he had. He told me that sucker would blow everyone away when the gate popped.He raced him and cashed nice betting on real short races. Problem was after a real short time the horse would stop like he was shot (his words!).

He told me any and EVERY time another horse put a body on his horse that was curtains for his Appy. That is where his definition of "pressing" came from. Racing at the outlaw tracks.

Jim "The Hat" Bradshaw's E/P definition:
A horse 2nd or 3rd who is 1/2 length or closer to the leader at the FIRST call.

Hope this helps someone. True story.

I use the Hat's

"within one length" for Early

all others are OTE

so i ask myself this question

What position has it shown it can win from??

Early with a 1c of 23


Slow horse innit

That is EXACTLY what you are supposed to do! Ask questions as you "look all around" at the horses past performances.

Charlie I know you are beginning here. What you just posted is VERY good work and I'm very serious.

My "eye" sees exactly what you see in this animal.

The only other thing to add, is what Charlie said :

1) He can only win with 23 or slower.

2) He can only win if no other horse challenges him for the lead

3) He can only "fight" at a 23 or slower

4) At a 23 or faster, he can fight, but cannot get the lead.

5) At a 23 or faster, he can fight, but cannot win ( needs 1/2 length lead "comfort zone" )

VoodooFan

By the way, your response turned this into a fine good exercise.

Complete picture of a horse.....like THE HAT would sometimes say,
".....I know what he's gonna do.." or "...in your mind, you have a complete picture of what this horse can do..."


*** Excellent. This is very good. Very good.*** RichieP

Hope this helps?? ?? Are you kidding?? ?

Thats a FANSTASTIC definative piece of HAT history AND solid , clear way of identifying what a Early Presser is!!

Perfect for the title of this thread "Beginner Matchers".

Always some grey area to me about this,...almost gettin it...., maybe 90% to 98% of the time, but not always entirely sure.

With this perfect picture and story in mind, some of us can proceed with confidence in classifying and identifying Early Pressers, win, lose or draw, we KNOW we made the right call as of running style...this would be one of the ground basics we got locked and loaded in our pocket.

Damn, it's like Christmas morning to see what's posted next in "Hat Check".

The Howard G. Sartin Methodology, wow, what's better, cause I haven't seen it yet, and doubt I will.

VoodooFan

Charlie's 4th sentence in post #6 here is exactly what the Hat wants us to do when going through a horses pp.

Charlie asked questions of the horse he was evaluating:
Can he win running Ote?

When he runs and wins(or just misses for example) what 1c does he need to do it?

What comfort zone of a lead does he need?

Ok remember that "weird thread" about taking a picture of a horse?? That is the same thing that Charlie is doing when he asked questions of a horse and then use the pp's to get answers.

1) Get a projected pace following Jim's outline in the 5 step approach.

2) Once you have that 1c-2c proj pace move to the 1 horse and start asking questions of the horse in front of you. Prioritize pace lines run against your proj pace or faster. Those are the lines you ask the most questions about.